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Knowledge Cartography for Controversies: The Iraq Debate

Simon Buckingham Shum and Alexandra Okada

The Open University, Knowledge Media Institute

Abstract: In analysing controversies and debates—which would include reviewing a literature in order to plan research, or assessing intelligence to formulate policy—there is no one worldview which can be mapped, for instance as a single, coherent concept map. The cartographic challenge is to show which facts are agreed and contested, and the different kinds of narrative links that use facts as evidence to define the nature of the problem, what to do about it, and why. We will use the debate around the invasion of Iraq to demonstrate the methodology of using a knowledge mapping tool to extract key ideas from source materials, in order to classify and connect them within and across a set of perspectives of interest to the analyst. We reflect on the value that this approach adds, and how it relates to other argument mapping approaches.

Biography: Simon Buckingham Shum is Senior Lecturer at the Knowledge Media Institute, Open University. B.Sc. Pyschology University of York. M.Sc. in Ergonomics from University College London and Ph.D. from the University of York. He is inter-ested in technologies for sensemaking, specifically, which structure discourse to assist reflection and analysis.

Biography: Alexandra Okada is Researcher in Knowledge Mapping for Open Content Initia-tive at the Knowledge Media Institute, Open University. Visiting Lecturer at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas FGV Online and the Pontificia Universidade Católica PUCSP COGEAE Online. B.Sc. Computer Science at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica – ITA, MA and PhD in Education at PUCSP. She is interested in how knowledge maps can be used to facilitate research, investigation and learning.